Emperor visits Ise shrine to report his April 30 abdication

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko visited Ise Jingu, a Shinto shrine in western Japan, on Thursday to report the upcoming abdication of the 85-year-old emperor on April 30 to the ancestral deities of the imperial family enshrined there.The couple is on a three-day trip to Mie Prefecture since Wednesday. It will be their last trip to a local region during the emperor's reign.The emperor, clad in a morning dress, and the empress, wearing a long dress, offered prayers at the shrine during the "Shinetsu no Gi" ritual, one of a series of rituals held for the imperial succession.For the occasio…READ FULL ARTICLE